R2015-103 APPROVING A CONSENT ORDER TO SETTLE ALL CLAIMS IN A CITIZENS' COMPLAINT

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LEGAL DEPARTMENT MEMORANDUM NO. 2015-10 September 2, 2015 TO: Honorable Mayor Moore-Wolfe and City Council FROM: Tim Gleason, City Manager Wendy Morthland, Corporation Counsel Keith Alexander, Water Management Director Re: Mahomet Aquifer Consent Decree In 2002, Clinton Landfill, Inc. ("CLI") obtained local siting authority from the DeWitt County Board to develop an approximately 135 acre municipal solid waste disposal unit landfill ("landfill"). This landfill is located above the Mahomet Aquifer("Aquifer"). The Aquifer is the primary source of drinking water for nearly 750,000 people in 14 Illinois counties. The City of Decatur utilizes water from the aquifer when using our Dewitt wells during periods of drought. In 2007, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency("IEPA") gave CLI a permit to operate this landfill but specifically prohibited the disposal of manufactured gas plant waste ("MGP") of a certain level as well as waste with high concentration levels of PCBs. In 2008, CLI requested permission from the IEPA to allow the deposit of certain MGPs and high level PCBs in a chemical waste unit portion of the landfill. In 2010 the IEPA granted this permit modification without requiring siting approval from the DeWitt County Board. Several local governments, including the Mahomet Valley Water Authority, Decatur, Urbana,Normal, Bloomington, Champaign, Savoy, and Champaign County, formed a coalition which comprised the Mahomet Aquifer Coalition("Coalition") and filed a Citizen's Complaint with the Illinois Pollution Control Board ("Board") asserting that the modification was granted improperly. 'The Illinois Attorney General, on behalf of the People of the State of Illinois, filed a Petition to Intervene in the action in support of our coalition. The Board dismissed our Petition and we appealed to the Illinois Appellate Court sitting in the Fourth District in December 2013. The case and issues have been briefed by all parties and awaiting for oral argument before the Court. In July 2014, the IEPA withdrew their previous approval to dispose of the chemical wastes in the landfill. No disposal of high levels of PCBs had been made as of that date as the United States Environmental Protection Agency("USEPA") had not yet formally approved and only limited disposal of MGPs had been made in a small area of the landfill. In response, CLI